The lion hugger

By Jason CaffreyBBC World Service

In
2012 Valentin Gruener rescued a young lion cub and raised it himself at
a wildlife park in Botswana. It was the start of an extraordinary
relationship. Now an astonishing scene is repeated each time they meet -
the young lion leaps on Gruener and holds him in an affectionate
embrace.

"Since the lion arrived, which is three years now, I haven't really left the camp," says Gruener.

"Sometimes for one night I go into the town here to organise
something for the business, but other than that I've been here with the
lion."

The lion he has devoted himself to is Sirga - a female cub he
rescued from a holding pen established by a farmer who was fed up with
shooting animals that preyed on his cattle.

"The lions had killed the other two or three cubs inside the
cage, and the mother abandoned the remaining cub. She was very tiny,
maybe 10 days old," Gruener says.

The farmer, Willy de Graaf, asked Gruener to try to save her
and so he took her to a wildlife park financed by de Graaf and became
her adoptive mother, "feeding her and taking care of her".

"You have this tiny cute animal sitting there and it's
already quite feisty," he says. "It will become about 10 times that size
and you will have to deal with it."

She's much bigger now, but when Gruener opens her cage she
still rushes to greet him - ecstatically throwing her paws around his
neck.

The lion leaps on Valentin Gruener as they meet

"That happens every time I open the door. It is an amazing
thing every time it happens, and it's such a passionate thing to do for
this animal to jump and give me a hug," says Gruener.

"But I guess it makes sense. At the moment she has no other
lions with her in the cage and I guess for her I'm like her species. So
I'm the only friend she's got. Lions are social cats so she's always
happy to see me."

The companions spend their time
hanging out in the Botswana bush, doing the kind of things that cats
enjoy, such as lying around under trees, play-fighting, and hunting.

"I don't believe we have to teach the lion to hunt. They have
this instinct like a domestic cat or even a dog that will try to hunt.
Any cat will catch a bird or a mouse. The lion will catch an antelope
when it gets big enough," Gruener says.

"I'm definitely giving her that opportunity to hunt, about
three times a week at the moment. Each walk takes five hours - sometimes
up to nine. We sort of hunt together and I'm helping her sometimes,
trying to show her how to kill something rather than catch it."

After Sirga's first kill Gruener wasn't sure if it would
still be safe for him to get close to the lion. But "she let me come
in", he says. Now he despatches animals the lioness fails to kill
quickly enough.

"It's a bit cruel because she will catch an antelope and hold
it down, and when it gets tired she could simply go and bite it in the
throat and kill it. But because it's so exciting she's like a cat that
keeps on playing with the mouse.

"It's not so lovely to watch when a lion has an antelope in front of her and she's having fun playing with this antelope."

Willy de Graaf has handed Gruener 500 hectares (two square
miles) to create a "miniature park" in which Sirga can roam freely, but
she will not be released into the wild. Not because she could not
survive, Gruener says, but because she has lost her fear of humans.

Under those circumstances she is likely to get too close to
humans, and if there is an accident she will end up getting shot. "And
that's not really the whole point of raising a lion," Gruener says.

In the park Sirga can live like a wild lion, but remain safe, he says. "That's the plan for her future."

And what of his own future? Gruener has put aside work on a
PhD while he has been raising Sirga, and has hardly ever left her alone.

"If she gets into a bigger enclosure and gets more space, and
maybe another lion to give her companionship, I'm sure I would be able
to leave for longer periods of time - which is required for me to finish
my studies.

"But as long as she needs me, and as long as I feel I want to
be there to make her life better, I will have that as my priority.

"I doubt anything will change much between me and her."

Edited by Gay3 - 20 Mar 2015 at 10:52am

Experience is something you gain a few minutes after you could have used it!

"Yes , its a good story indeed......however the real lady to thank is
also one of Charlie's owners Marilyn and Tony Stokes ...Marilyn was the
one who helped rescue Charlie's dam Girl On A Swing from the property
where she was starving mixed in with a lot of dead horses ....
....

Marilyn Stokes put a lot of hard work and a couple of years into
Girl On A Swing ( also known as Holly ) to get her back in order ...I
was just happy to work with Marilyn to give the mare a purpose and a
home ...the old mare Holly now is living at my place and has produced
some lovely babies including 2 full brothers to Charlie waiting in the
wings so to speak ...”

Experience is something you gain a few minutes after you could have used it!

I cant find a link but did anyone see the cat in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel ? The police tried to catch it but it hid out for something like 3 days, and then a maintenence worker managed to catch it. He took it home and got it up on FB or somewhere , and a lady got him to scan the chip, and it was hers, It came from Homebush, 19Ks away and only been gone a day or 2. Thats one life done. Only 8 left now.

Embarrassed, not really. I know you keep an exercise book full of joking, humorous sayings you have heard , or looked up on the internet, a quip for every occasion is Macca.And I think chihuahuas are horrible rat like little things, can you even call them a dog ?

Embarrassed, not really. I know you keep an exercise book full of joking, humorous sayings you have heard , or looked up on the internet, a quip for every occasion is Macca.And I think chihuahuas are horrible rat like little things, can you even call them a dog ?

You underestimate the Chihuahua Whale . Mine killed a German Shepherd once .

I saw that this morning on tv in some channel's regular cute animal video segment, and they said the owner followed the corgi and found him up on top of the pony riding it around in the dark

I am no expert on corgis or how high they can jump, but from what I can see of them they struggle to keep their tackle off the ground with those stumpy little legs, ket alone launching like a cat up there

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